His mindset has infected the American left as well: Time for the United States to get with the times and stop being so belligerently different from the rest of the world. We need to give up our anachronistic love of guns and free speech, and why are so many of us still in thrall of those musty old religious fairy tales?

It saddens me.

You talk about these things so eloquently, where all I can do is spit nails.